Tuesday, March 3, 2015

The above question is the exact response that occurs every single time I explain to someone that I am a music major (and an English major too, but the focus here is music). I mean, after all, we just sit around and play instruments all day, don't we? LIES! As music majors we actually take entire classes on the history of music and the rules of writing music (SEVENTHS RESOLVE DOWN!), and THEN we spent the rest of our lives playing our instruments or singing.

But in order to really understand the music that we're performing, we end up listening to a lot of music too. I talk about music all the time around here, and how my genres range all over the place, from Pearl Jam to Disney music to Classical composers, but every once and a while they overlap in really weird and impressive ways. A couple of weeks ago I blogged about Illuminations 98B and Jupiter, specifically how I've actually played that music, and in the past, my wind ensemble has performed many of the songs that are played throughout the parks.

Today I wasn't performing though. I was just listening. In our theory class, around once a week (although I do believe this week we have two!) we have what we call a "Musicians Moot," where we examine a particular composer or work, just listening, following along with the score or sometimes picking out specific characteristics of a piece. Our latest piece: Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. I promise you know this work, even if you don't know the whole thing, although for our purposes I want to take a look at the final movement: Rondo.

Now, the Disney park. If you skip ahead in the following video track to 3:06, just take a listen for a few seconds.

Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it? Turns out, the arranger of the Festival of Fantasy track used Mozart's Nachtmusik as inspiration for the parade we all love so much! We talk a lot about how Classical music is often made up of short, catchy tunes that get stuck in your head, and Festival of Fantasy proves that fact right out! I'm pretty sure we all walk away from the parade with the music stuck in our head...at least until we head on Haunted Mansion or Pirates and get a completely different song stuck in our heads.

It's sort of funny though because during theory class this morning I just could no for the life of me figure out why this song sounded so familiar. I knew it had something to do with Disney, because you just KNOW when it is, but I couldn't find directly where it came from. Then, a few minutes later, right before French class I was sitting, humming the tune and suddenly the lyrics from Festival of Fantasy popped into my head and the mystery was no more! Ironically enough, it took me longer to find the spot in Festival of Fantasy where the theme comes in than it took me to realize where I knew it from. The theme does come back multiple times throughout the rest of the parade though!

And there it is, your lesson on why Music Majors are important. Whoever put together the music for Festival of Fantasy was probably a music major somewhere once too, and you know what, now we all have Mozart stuck in our heads.

Monday, March 2, 2015

I guess the posts about OUAT are continuing, at least for a day, because THERE IS A GIANT CAPTAIN HOOK IN MY DORM ROOM.

Many moons ago, I apparently convinced one of my friends from High School to start watching OUAT, and since she found Hook in Season 2, I've not only found a fellow Oncer, but also a fellow Hooker. Obviously, since then we frequently freak out about the one and only Colin O'Donoghue, so last week when he was visiting the Once offices and Adam Horowitz posted this picture, we took it as a sign.

Soon after, she ordered a lifesize cardboard Captain Hook, and when I got an email today saying there was a package and it turned out to be a giant thing, I had a sneaking suspicion that my own Lifesize Killian was only moments away. I opened the box and sure enough, there was my own Captain Hook. My problem right now? Trying to figure out where to put him. Regardless, I'm pretty much in love with this thing and I have the bestest friends ever and this made my day and I HAVE A COLIN IN MY ROOM.

So yeah...I'm happy, and I definitely think that this surprise counts as a pretty big part of the Disney in my Monday.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

I remember that this time last year I was simply celebrating the fact that it was March, simply because a year ago we still had a whole week to wait before the first returning episode of Once Upon A Time. Luckily, this season we're a bit spoiled with a week less of hiatus, and while it gave me one less week to put together Disneybounds, it's not stopping me!

But first, I want to mention that yes, I will be participating in the March Disneybound Challenge. I've thought about doing it in the past and just haven't, but for some reason, this year I just really wanted to. I mean, I was already doing four of the days for OUAT and since Once started back up on March 1st, it just felt like the right thing to do. So definitely keep an eye out for pictures from my March Disneybounds as well! I haven't decided if they'll be on my Instagram or not, but they'll definitely be on my Tumblr!

As for tonight's Spring Premiere of OUAT, it just had to be one of the Queens of Darkness, and who better than Cruella!?! While the fur coat is kind of big and bulky, and I really don't wear lipstick (it's a mess when you play instruments), this one was pretty darn fun to pull off. The hair, a faux bob, was a completely new attempt for me, and with only a couple of hours to make it all work, that was sort of nerve wrecking. I guess it was all worth it though, because Victoria Smurfit, who portrays Cruella on OUAT, favorited my tweet with my outfit! We're definitely on a roll with these Disneybounds!

As for the episode itself, the first one back is always a little weird for me. Spoilers are rampant in the days leading up to the premiere, and while I attempt to only read spoilers involving Hook, sometimes you just get too much of a sense of the episode. So while I loved it (and I mean LOVED it), I'm definitely looking forward to next week when I really don't know much of what's going on, even if I AM very excited about a promised Hook and Emma "heart to heart."

It's good to be back in the OUAT habit though. I know that I mentioned to a couple of my roommates that coming in on a Sunday afternoon and at around 5 heading to our dresser area and starting on my outfit and my hair and makeup just felt so natural. Plus, when you have most of the cast live tweeting with you, as well as all your Oncer friends, everything just feels right. Your schedule has resumed and I know for sure that I have something to look forward to every weekend now, which will definitely be nice considering my busy schedule over the next couple of weeks.

Saturday, February 28, 2015

And that's another month of the #EverydayDisneyChallenge in the books. You know, I'm definitely in the routine of posting a picture everyday, and it's pretty nice to not have to go and search for them all the time. What I do is at the beginning of every month I go through all my Disney pictures and find one for everyday of the upcomming month, edit it and then transfer it to my phone. It definitely makes my life a lot easier, even if it sometimes does take a couple of hours to go and find a picture for everyday (for some reason with Epcot for March I couldn't for the life of me figure out that I put Brain Power down on the list for Universe of Energy. I felt like a terrible Disney Fan...)

So here are the pictures from Month 2, which happened to be Magic Kingdom month. This month feels a lot darker when it comes to the pictures than the upcoming month, but I have the feeling that it's because half of these are night pictures. Apparently my family frequents Magic Kingdom during the evening hours, and to be completely honest, yeah, we probably do.

If you'd like to join me for any of the upcoming months, go for it! The list for March is below, and it's as simple as putting up your picture everyday and tagging it with #EverydayDisneyChallenge. You can do it on Instagram, which is where I'm running it, or you could do it on Twitter or Facebook! Whatever your heart fancies!

Friday, February 27, 2015

I can't believe how late to the game I am on this one. I love movies, especially Disney movies, and I love going to see them in theaters, but with a busy schedule like mine, sometimes it just doesn't work out very well. It means that my family never got around to seeing Big Hero 6, and now that's finally out on DVD, we had a chance to watch it.

Now, I don't think it's another Frozen, not by a long shot, but I'm certainly satisfied with the care Disney gave to this film. I'm slowly getting into the Marvel stuff (next on my list is the Captain America films), mostly due to my love of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. Granted, I haven't really had time to watch that series this season either, and I have the distinct feeling that I'll catch up once I finish catching up on Chasing Life, especially now that SHIELD will be back for the spring season (just like OUAT...seems ABC has a thing going with this split season thing). Regardless, I really enjoyed Big Hero 6.

The music, and I'll mention this first since I'm currently listening to the soundtrack, was phenomenal. Very upbeat, and I know I texted Megan saying that it would make some seriously great studying or driving or superhero cleaning action music. Does this mean that the next time I'm cleaning the bathroom I'll be blasting this music? Yes, yes it does.

Second, I know that when everyone else I know saw it, they all said that I'd get super emotionally attached to Tadashi, and you know what, I tried not to. I tried so hard. And yet, I still was and I still cried when he died because that's not a spoiler because we all knew it was going to happen anyway. That being said, I'm honestly not sure who my favorite character was. I liked everyone pretty equally except for Fred. I just wasn't a huge fan of him. I mean, maybe I'm a bit bias because Go-Go was voiced by Jamie Chung, who happens to portray Mulan on OUAT, and Honey Lemon's style was just perfection, and I totally saw some of myself in Wasabi, and you just can't not like Baymax and Hiro. If I HAD to pick a favorite though I think it'd have to be Go-Go. I feel like her "superpower" is exactly what I'd want.

As for my favorite part? Definitely "Low-Battery Baymax" and the whole Fist Bump Thing. I literally laughed every single time he would fist bump and then go "Ba la la la la." Adorable. But as a college student who sees drunk people every so often, low-battery Baymax was pure hilariousness.

All in all, while it's not my favorite Disney film (remember, that's a REALLY hard list to get on), it's definitely not my least favorite either, and I plan on rewatching it very, very soon.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

I guess I'm now technically allowed to post this, considering the fact that the band trip video premiere has come and gone. It means I can finally talk a little bit more about the video itself, and while I cannot share the entirety of the 57 minute feature, I CAN share one segment with you:

While only one of many, many segments, the Hollywood Studios portion just happens to be my favorite. It took around 5-6 hours to edit, features footage from 4 different trips, all perfectly blended together with pictures and the music from the Finale of Fantasmic to create the masterpiece that you can watch above.

Overall, I'm very very proud of what I accomplished with the Band Trip Video, and I'm excited that I am able to share at least a little bit of it with you. So many people made this 57 minute feature possible, and the fact that I was, indeed, able to attend the premiere gave me quite a bit of joy. I don't really get anything in return for the over 150 hours I spent on this thing, aside from the knowledge that it, hopefully, made a lot of people in the group happy. I am, however, very glad it's all over. This video ruled my life for a very long time, so to have it completely premiered and out of my hands is a huge relief.

On the other hand, I'm kind of lost with what to do now. Aside from my schoolwork, I generally need other projects to keep myself busy. However, I do have several vlogs to edit from January yet, the first of which is already finished and will hopefully go up soon. Although I do suppose this gives me more time to work on Everyday Disney. After all, there are some new features I've been working on since the beginning of the year which have to go up eventually.

But I will say that my favorite moment of the premiere was when, during the credits, everyone just continued to clap and I sat there like "What in the world do I do?" I understand you Oscar winners. I understand you. Especially since I really had like no words to say and then they clapped again and I was just like "I DON'T KNOW WHAT TO DO" (said in the voice of the wonderful Colin O'Donoghue). Hopefully I'll be able to share a few more segments of the Band Trip Video (affectionately named One Band's Dream), in the future, but for now, I hope you enjoy the Hollywood Studios segment as much as I enjoyed making it.

Have a magical day!

(Note: This blog post was written on February 27 due to a late return from the video premiere).

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

I believe it was sometime last week when I first realized this, but I decided that it was a big enough topic for a blog post in it's own right, and I was certainly correct with that statement! You see, I'm not Catholic, but I do go to a Catholic College, and that means that there's always a lot of talk about Lent and what everyone will be giving up for it. I find that a lot of students on campus give up something other than meat or in addition to meat, and there are some pretty interesting ideas. My roommate Hannah has given up Starbucks, and I know several people who have given up desserts in the caf here on campus. But for me, giving up something for Lent just doesn't work very well. I do, however, get some pretty interesting suggestions on what I should give up.

First off, let's point out that if I give up any more food, I will literally be unhealthy. I'm already on restricted dairy and I can't eat most fruit, so is taking something else away really a good idea? I mean, I'm pretty sure my most popular dish here at school is salad, and that just seems silly to take away in my situation. I don't really eat desserts either, so why would that even be difficult? Doesn't that defeat the point?

One time I had someone suggest that I should give up Once Upon A Time, to which I just responded with a laugh. After all, OUAT comes back right in the middle of Lent (at the beginning, really), and considering I already spend half the year without it (literally, more than half the year), I'm really already participating in a "Non-Once" period that's much longer than Lent. Plus, after waiting 80 some days, I'm not about to give up my premiere.

Another of my roommates is giving up Make-Up, and that's great. In fact, I fully support her idea. Only it's not really ideal for me. Even if I didn't do the make-up on my OUAT Disneybounds, I still have performances that occur during Lent, and I can't just go perform in front of tons of people without doing my makeup...

But by far the most outrageous suggestion for Lent I've gotten was someone who suggested I give up Disney. Now that, that's just downright IMPOSSIBLE. Why? Because I am literally always surrounded by something Disney. If it's just Disney movies or something, sure! I can do that! I do it most of the year anyway! If it's the Disney Parks, you have to realize that I spend 99% of my time NOT at them, so that doesn't even count. But getting rid of all Disney in my life, even aside from the fact that I write a daily blog about Disney, would never happen.

Over the course of my day, I've taken pictures of some of the most common Disney references in my life. This is just photographical evidence, and certainly doesn't include every last bit of Disney that was in my day, but it's a start!

As you can see, just up by my loft where I sleep there's tons of Disney. Stitch sleeps right next to my head, helping to protect my phone (which doubles as my alarm) from both me and from falling off my bed. I also have a Disney calendar that hangs at the end of my loft, for no reason other than it's pretty. Finally, I have pictures that hang along the wall, and you can see my Star Wars pillow hanging out up there too!

As if my lock screen isn't enough, my Twitter and Facebook are also filled with Disney, and if you want to go off of my phone...check out Megan's! Her phone has Disney all over it too!

My computer screen almost always has something Disney on it, and I didn't even include my background, which just happens to be Captain Hook (the Disney version...perm and all). Plus, here's where I include Everyday Disney. That picture happened to be taken when I was in the middle of writing Day 782: Thank the Maker!

Since I couldn't easily take a picture of my lanyard in class, I took one at lunch. At college, we have a lot of little things that we have to keep with us: our ID, keys for our room and for our mailbox, among other things, and in my case, lactade so I can eat. Lanyards are a popular option around here, and you don't wear it around your neck: you carry it. So to make mine easily distinguishable, I picked a Disney lanyard I got at the D23 Expo in 2011!

Even in my "office" I have Disney! Way down in the deep depths of the music building sits the music library, where I work sorting out music and so on and so forth. Since I had a coupon for shutterfly a while back, I created a desk calendar. Although you can't see it, every month has a different Disney picture to go along with it, but since it doesn't officially start until March 2015, I've been keeping it on the cover instead.

Now, I swear I didn't do this on purpose. I picked this shirt completely without this project in mind...but I probably am either wearing something Disney or Disneybounding a solid 60% of the time. Actually, most of my clothes have Disney connections, as a lot of times I buy it for a specific outfit and then it gains a name that has to do with it. For instance, I have "Hook Pants" and a "Belle shirt" and an "Elsa Dress" and so on and so forth.

Finally, we all know that I love my mugs, and since I have either coffee or tea (or both!) at least once a day, I put them all to good use. Today's mug of choice was my Contemporary Resort mug, which I got in January, although yesterday it was my Hollywood Studios Starbucks Mug and tomorrow it'll probably be my Mickey's Really Swell Diner Travel mug!

Now, like I said, this is just a taste of the amount of Disney in my day, but as you can see, it would be pretty much impossible to abolish all Disney from my life for Lent. I still haven't figured out if or what I'm giving anything up this year, but one thing's for sure: it won't be Disney.

Catching Up!

Everyday Disney is currently in a catch-up process due to a computer virus and extremely busy schedule! But don't worry! Between now and the end of February, everything will be caught up and a couple of new features will be added as well!